I used to pirate music and movies. Oh, I bought and paid for them, but I also pirated them. A jailable offense despite owning it. Well, back before it was "owning a license to watch/listen." Why? Because of deceptive marketing practices which were somehow not illegal (somehow being the dystopian cyberpunk corporatocracy in which we currently reside). What I mean by that (before streaming was a thing) was being forced to purchase shitty movies in a pack with the only movie you wanted to watch but wasn't sold individually. Screenshots of the single explosion in the entire film being plastered on a slow drama because passing it off as an "action" film was seen as more profitable. It was game-changing when iTunes offered single-song purchase so you wouldn't have to purchase the entire album just for one song you wanted. Until they started chipping that away, because of course they did.

Currently I pay for a service which allows me to browse and download royalty-free music. But YouTube still flags it, and the if I can skip the management of such by quickly, effortlessly, and inexpensively creating my own with AI, why wouldn't I?

Today's call revealed she's been trying to write me a letter. One in which she details all her feelings, but she's stopped and started so many times that was the primary reason for this request:

I think you need to come visit. I'm putting it out there because you have been breaking down your feelings for me but also because in person conversations are needed for us to figure out what our "relationship" will look like. I also think we need the space in each other's to figure out some other boundaries.

There was a time I would've killed for that letter.